


For The Time Being

by jarred_bees



Category: Team Fortress 2
Genre: Inspired by Art, M/M, helmet party
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-14
Updated: 2020-09-14
Packaged: 2021-03-06 22:21:20
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,595
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26456323
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/jarred_bees/pseuds/jarred_bees
Summary: The Administrator had told them the ceasefire would last for perhaps a week, tops...
Relationships: Dell Conagher/Jane Doe, Engineer/Soldier (Team Fortress 2)
Comments: 2
Kudos: 29





	For The Time Being

**Author's Note:**

> This was a work inspired by one of my favorite artists from Tumblr, engietrans!  
> Here is the original post: https://engietrans.tumblr.com/post/628937099887919104/if-ur-not-too-busy-maybe-could-you-draw-solly-or  
> This story probably makes more sense after you check out the post.  
> Hope you enjoy!

The Administrator had told them the ceasefire would last for perhaps a week, tops. They were to be locked down in their respective facilities for some simple lab results, then they were allowed to resume their jobs of blowing holes clean through each other.

Dell didn’t quite mind the time spent inside. He wasn’t one to get out and around much even under normal circumstances anyways. Of course, he would be lying if he said he didn’t enjoy occasionally being pulled from his workshop by one of the others to grab drinks in town and go on brief road trips during their days off, but otherwise the Engineer was perfectly content sticking to his papers and machines on base. 

Upgrading his machinery was a pastime he didn’t think could ever get boring, and with every new feature or bug worked out Dell would secretly anticipate his work’s enhanced performance out on the field when battle next resumed.

But perhaps the one thing Dell enjoyed more than the freedom to tinker around during ceasefires was the extra time he got to spend with Jane. Jane, who would otherwise normally be up at the crack of dawn to warm up, spend all day flying around the battlefield hollering at the top of his lungs, then go to bed promptly at 2200 military time. 

Ceasefire days were different. It was a subtle difference few team members really noticed unless Sniper woke up early or Medic pulled another all-nighter, but on the days the RED base wasn’t bustling with preparations for their daily day-long fights the Soldier was absent from his morning routine outside. 

Those mornings were the best. Those were the mornings Dell could reach behind him in bed and Jane’s warm fingers would lock through his own, and then Jane would nestle his face right into the nape of Dell’s neck and Dell would have to squirm away, chuckling at the bristle of day-old stubble. Those were the mornings Dell made a full pot of dark roast rather than half and Jane would share the tiny workshop stove and make omelettes the way his mother taught him. Those were the mornings of chaste kisses and roaming hands, of smelling the gunpowder burned into even Jane’s civilian clothes, of the workshop table abandoned, of quiet music and gentle blue eyes and warm bliss seeping through every nook and cranny of their bodies.

It was almost heaven until the call came in at midnight. 

“You’ve reached Dell Conagher, what can I do for you?” he said, rubbing sleep from his eyes and trying not to sound like he tumbled off the wrong end of the bed. 

“Mr. Conagher.” The Administrator’s voice was sharp. If the receiver hadn’t been pressing into Dell’s ear he might have believed the woman was in his very bedroom. “You and Mister Doe missed the briefing last night.”

“Briefing?” Del echoed, bewildered. Behind him Jane also sat up, sleep-heavy hands reaching blindly until they settled for clutching onto Dell’s waist. “Well…I’m mighty sorry about that, Administrator. I was under the impression we were still under ceasefire until tomorrow.”

He could almost _hear_ the woman’s lips draw into a line. 

“You _were_ ,” she replied crisply. “Though if you and Mister Doe bothered to pay any attention last night you would have noticed your orders have been changed. RED is to be effectively quarantined until further notice. Your train arrives tomorrow 8AM sharp to take you to the airport where you all will be transported home.”

Any words Dell wanted to say turned to ash in his throat. For a moment he opened and closed his mouth, willing his brain to make sense of what he was hearing, but the phone was taken from his frozen grasp.

“Listen, lady.” Jane’s voice was still rough from sleep, but somehow the hoarse rumble of it brought Dell back to himself. The man’s eyes were bright, narrowed in irritation at the unwanted yammering the old hag at this time of night, at the interruption of their quiet closeness. “This could have waited until the morning, you hear?”

“Mister Doe.” The Administrator’s voice could cut diamond. “I’m well aware of the time. I was simply taking time out of my schedule to inform you and Mister Conagher of the changed plans tomorrow morning.”

“What change?” Jane barked. “Is ceasefire over?”

“Quite the opposite, I’m afraid,” the Administrator said shortly. “As I have informed Mister Conagher, everyone on base is to evacuate on government orders tomorrow morning. You will be sent home.”

“Oh, yeah?” Jane’s nostrils flared. “What makes you think you can make me do that?”

“I can terminate your contract,” was the immediate reply, “though I believe the newly discovered novel coronavirus will do that for me if you are not gone and quarantined immediately.”

Jane opened his mouth no doubt to retaliate when Dell finally got enough hammers hitting cylinders in his brain to snatch the phone back.

“A new virus?” Dell scratched at the week-old beard beginning to form on his chin, brow furrowing. “Well, no wonder the town’s been so gosh-darn quiet. But indefinite quarantine? Isn’t that a bit extreme?”

“Over thirty million people worldwide have contracted this disease, Mister Conagher,” the Administrator sighed. “I contacted you and Mister Ludwig because you two seem at least somewhat competent enough to understand the severity of your situation. The rest believe their opposing team have given up for the time being.” 

She paused. “Though I was not anticipating Mister Doe’s being here.”

“He was helping me sort blueprints, ma’am,” Dell blurted out. “I had some spare beers layin’ around and we got a little carried away.”

“If you insist,” the woman said in a voice that made Dell’s spine crawl. He knew she didn’t buy his story one bit, but was grateful she didn’t pry. “Masks will be distributed by morning. Good night, Mister Conagher, Mister Doe.”

Then the line went dead, and Dell put it back onto its receiver mechanically. 

“C’mere, Hardhat.”

Dell leaned back into Soldier’s warm, solid embrace and let go of the breath he didn’t know he had been holding. “That woman terrifies me,” he admitted with a small laugh. Jane grunted and pulled Dell closer, closer until the back of his head was nestled in the little dip right beneath Jane’s chin.

“I will send you letters,” Jane said into the back of Dell’s head and kissed it. “No quarantine is keeping me away from you.”

“Not for long, anyways,” Dell murmured. He reached back, fingers trailing down the side of Jane’s neck and across those broad shoulders that had held him every night and day for the past week. “Are you gonna go back to livin’ in Merasmus’s castle?”

“Yes, sir!” Jane’s enthusiasm was contagious and sent Dell into another chuckle. “I’m sure Lieutenant Bites will be happy to see me back!”

“I’m holdin’ you to that letter thing,” Dell said, sitting up a little and turning until his eyes locked with Jane’s. “Send me letters, and we can talk, and I’ll make somethin’ maybe we can even see each other through.”

“Like that woman’s tiny televisions?”

“Yes, like those,” Dell said, smiling. For a moment he sat there, thinking of all the wonderful things they had done that week. Then those thoughts shifted to the prospect of next morning, and the smile slowly slipped from his face. “Should we start packing? I…I got an awful lotta stuff to-“

“Later.” Jane drew Dell closer until their lips brushed each other’s in the darkness. “We can pack later.”

* * *

“Well, I guess that’s it, then.”

Dell dumped his final suitcase stuffed to the brim with the various bits and bobs he could fit into it on the train’s luggage compartment. “Anything else back in my workshop’s a lost cause. Take whatever you want.”

The mask stretching across his face was foreign, and Dell tugged at the elastic straps around his head. In any other situation the sight of Jane with a mask pulled over his nose would have been funny, but as Dell turned to say goodbye he could see the worry in Jane’s eyes.

“You’ll let me know when you get home, right?” Jane said, picking at his uniform. Dell’s heart wrenched a little at seeing the Soldier so torn up about the whole thing. He knew Jane liked order, and with one call the Administrator had taken that from him. From each other. 

“Soon as I step through my doors I’ll call you,” Dell promised, taking Jane’s fidgeting hand into his own and squeezing it for too long. Behind him, the train blared its horn for the last time, a warning that departure was soon and inevitable. Dell backtracked off the platform and through the entrance of his compartment, still facing Jane.

“I’ll call you,” Dell repeated earnestly. There was still so much he wanted Jane to know, so much he wanted to do before he left, and here standing in the doorway of the already slowly puffing train he could not do much. 

So Dell smiled. He smiled as widely as he could behind the thin protection of his mask and gave Jane a thumbs up. “It’ll be like I never left, Jane!” he called as the train jolted and groaned and finally began sliding forward. “It’s just for the time bein’!”

Jane was grinning again now, eyes never leaving Dell’s. “Roger that, Hardhat!” he shouted back, one hand raised to his helmet in a goodbye. And then the train was gone, a thin line trailing smoke into the horizon.


End file.
